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Friday, 31 May 2013

Seven Quick Takes VII: Linkses!

So I'm in the middle of another crazy couple of weeks with too many things to do, too little attention to do them with, and that panicky feeling that a deadline is gonna jump out of nowhere and hit me over the head with something.

To maximize my limited attention, I'm going to leave you with a bunch of links to interesting articles and blog posts. You're welcome.

If you were paying attention last week, you’ll recall from my newsy little post on Friday, that Pope Francis has charged Catholics with asking the Holy Spirit for “the grace to be annoying.” His words. Not mine.

I know what you’re thinking: Easy, peazy lemon squeazy, right?
Not right.
Admittedly, that was my first reaction too.
“Yes!” I thought. “Finally a grace that comes naturally to me. I don’t even have to pray for this one.”

I love easy to read posts like this with plenty of Catholic memes, and enough actual practical food for thought. (Also, interesting fact: #3 is kind of why I wore a nose ring for the past ten years.)

I love this blog because it is a big slice of the authenticity I keep talking about. This is real life, broken, messy, confusing, hard... and into this mess comes the healing grace of God. If you're not drowning, why do you need a Saviour? Leticia is a far from typical Catholic blogger, and that makes her story that much more interesting.

---3---

The Catholic's response to homosexuality is really confusing. Love the sinner, hate the sin. Treat people who struggle with same sex attraction with 'respect, compassion, and sensitivity'. But we cannot support or approve homosexual relationships as a normal or healthy way of life, because we believe that isn't God's plan for men and women. We also have the same belief about divorce, premarital sex and live-in relationships- that they go against God's plan for us, and do not allow us to be truly happy and fulfilled.

But we don't contest the existence of civil divorce. So why do we oppose 'gay marriage'. which is essentially a civil union? Now that gay marriage is in the news a lot, we have to figure out what we're saying, and why.

Speaking of homosexuality (which seems unavoidable in this day and age), here's someone who has helped shaped many Catholics' perspective on the gay debate- Steve Gershom, who struggles with same-sex attraction, but is also convinced about the truth of Church's teaching of homosexuality. He writes honestly about his struggles, and he also calls us all to learn how to accept each other's weaknesses and brokenness, and to open our hearts to them.

That’s our job, as Christians: to live in such a way that our friends will know, as Jesus’ friends must have known, that nothing could make us run away from them. Since my friends are good men and women, there’s always somebody I can go to when things get heavy. There’s always ten somebodies. They help me bear my burdens and I help them bear theirs; and, having shared burdens, we are better able to share joys.

---5---

I love to think and talk about emotional chastity, because it is something so relevant to most women. What always surprises me is that so few Catholic women talk about this danger. It's considered normal to go through one desperate crush after another, (which I regularly did when I was younger) and it's like we had no idea that it was even possible to 'guard our hearts'.

Stephanie Calis shares an honest (you notice how this is a recurring theme on my blog?), funny, and wise take on infatuation, sentimentality and the emotional aspect of chastity.

At the weekly prayer group we were both part of, each person would state their intentions before we prayed the Rosary together. "I'd like," he said, "to pray for my girlfriend."
Slam. There went my heart. Somehow I made it through the next hour, then promptly left in search of a place to empty my dangerously full tear ducts. My college is over 200 years old, founded by a priest and featuring four chapels. All of them were occupied. After half a frustrated hour of trying to find somewhere empty, I settled on the back pew of the main chapel, where a grief group was meeting far away from me, up front (maybe I should've joined them?).

---6---

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Namaste!

I'm Sue, a thirty-one year old urban Indian Catholic who loves words, talks too much, hates adventures and and yet is on the Grand Quest of Learning to Love.

Introversion and introspection, opinions about love, romance and marriage, big families, socially awkward situations, being Catholic in a pluralistic society, feeling like a foreigner in my own country and theology broken down... welcome to this INTJ's world.